Yeah, NYC is far from perfect, but it's also quite special. I grew up in LA, & always will consider it my hometown, but I wanted to live in NYC. I always sensed it would be copacetic. And it was. We arrived in '96. I think I would have enjoyed the sixties & seventies, even as crime & pollution increased. Gentrification has ruined much. When my wife's grandmother lived here in the 20s & 30s she always talked about how cheaply one could live in Manhattan.

No so anymore. But still special.